1991 | Literature
Literature
Nonfiction: The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration And How It Changed America by New Orleans-born journalist Nicholas Lemann, 37; There Are No Children Here by New York-born Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Kotlowitz, 36, is about two young brothers in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes housing project; Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby by Yale Law School professor Stephen L. (Lisle) Carter, 37; The Empire and the New Barbarians (L'empire et les nouveaux barbares) by French physician-author Jean-Christophe Rufin, 39, who joined Doctors Without Borders in his 20s; The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy by Seymour M. Hersh; Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years by Haynes Johnson; The Work of Nations by Scranton, Pa.-born Harvard economist Robert B. Reich, 45; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World by Stephen J. Greenblatt; Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War by Robert K. Massie; Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by New York-born Wall Street Journal reporter Susan Faludi, 31: "If establishing masculinity depends most of all on succeeding as the prime breadwinner, then it is hard to imagine a force more directly threatening to fragile American manhood than the feminist drive for economic equality"; The Beauty Myth by San Francisco-born writer Naomi Wolf, 29: "We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women's advancement: the beauty myth"; Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by Toledo, Ohio-born libertarian humorist P. J. (Patrick Jake) O'Rourke, 43; Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? by Monterey, Calif.-born columnist Mary Tyler Ivins, now 47, who has been at the Dallas Times-Herald since 1980.
Chinese studies pioneer John King Fairbank suffers a heart attack and dies at Cambridge, Mass., September 14 at age 84.
Fiction: Murther & Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies; Immortality by Milan Kundera; The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo) by José Saramago, whose satire creates a furor by having God use Jesus to create a religion that spawns violence and intolerance (a Lisbon jury will select the novel to represent Portugal for a 1992 literary prize, the government will veto the choice as blasphemous, and Saramago will vacate his small Lisbon apartment to live at Lanzarote in the Canary Islands); Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder, whose examination of Western Philosophy from before Socrates to Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Sartre will be an international bestseller; The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks; A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley; St. Maybe by Anne Tyler; Wartime Lies by Polish-born New York lawyer-novelist Louis Begley, 57, who survived the Holocaust as a child; Object Lessons by New York Times syndicated columnist Anna Quindlen; Garden State by New York-born editor-novelist Hiram F. "Rick" Moody III, 29; Lost in the City (stories) by Arlington, Va.-born author Edward P. Jones, 40, is about black working-class families in Washington, D.C.
Novelist-poet-playwright Robert Chouquette dies at Montreal January 22 at age 85; novelist-playwright Graham Greene of a blood disorder at Vevey, Switzerland, April 3 at age 86; Max Frisch of cancer at his home near his native Zürich April 4 at age 79; Sean O'Faolain at Dublin April 20 at age 91; Jerzy Kosinsky is found dead in his New York apartment May 3 at age 57 (he has had a severe heart condition and has evidently taken his own life); novelist-biographer Sir Angus Wilson dies following a stroke at Bury St. Edmonds May 31 at age 77; Frank Yerby of heart failure at Madrid November 29 at age 76.
Poetry: Questions about Angels by Billy Collins; Helen by C. K. Williams; The Oxopetra Elegies (Ta elegeia tes oxopetra) by Odysseus Elytis, now 79; Nearly a Legend (Casa una Leyenda) by Claudio Ramírez.
Poet-novelist Howard Nemerov dies of cancer at his University City, Mo., home July 5 at age 71; James Schuyler of a stroke at New York Spril 12 at age 67; poet-literary critic Laura Riding (Jackson) of cardiac arrest at Sebastian, Fla., September 2 at age 90; poet George Barker at Itteringham, Norfolk, October 27 at age 78.
Juvenile: Dogs Don't Tell Jokes by Louis Sachar.
Author-illustrator Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) dies at his La Jolla, Calif., home September 24 at age 87.